I’ve heard this so often, my ears are bleeding. "My customers are different".

We all have differences. We like slightly different kinds of humor, cars, mates, pets, and food.

There are cultural differences. There are educational differences. Differences in social status.

I’m not saying these differences don’t exist. I’m saying they don’t matter when you’re advertising.

Here’s why; All great advertising grabs us on an emotional level. We have emotional, even instinctual needs. And they are all the same. We all want to be accepted, respected, thought well of, envied, thought of as witty or clever, and considered attractive.

All of us think we are misunderstood, undervalued by employers (or customers), and taken advantage of. When we tell a story about ourselves, we are always the good guy, never the bad guy. Or at least we’re the victim. We have all been humiliated.

We all think we are unique. We all share the idea that we are special in some way.

None of these beliefs are logical. They are all emotional. And that’s why all ads should first have an emotional grabber. Then later in the ad, you can logically justify why the reader should buy.

Your headline has to have a "Grab Them By The Face" quality. It has to hit them on a gut level. You want the reader’s little voice in their head to scream "Wait! This concerns me!" and then immediately after that "Hey! This solves a major problem I have. I need this now!".

All the other parts of the ad,; comparable priced items, reasons to buy from you, convenient terms, free delivery, liberal refund policy, only serve to make it easier to justify the decision they have already made.

Customers just need something to tell their neighbor when he asks "Why in the world did you buy that?"

Think of the number "11". Now think of a vegetable. Did you think of carrots? Everyone does.